


Healing

by alayneni



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7941229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alayneni/pseuds/alayneni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damon Salvatore has not set foot in Mystic Falls in three years but a phone call from Stefan that promises that there is a way to awake Elena brings him, Alaric and Bonnie home. My version of season 7.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Vampire Diaries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own The Vampire Diaries. This story will not have regular updates.

Damon stood on top the clock tower overlooking the deserted town of Mystic Falls. It had been three years since he had stepped foot in this miserable town. It had changed hands between the heretics and other supernatural foes a few times in his absence. The heretics were currently in charge but from what Stefan was telling him, it might not stay that way for much longer. There was a new force trying to take over the town, one that went by the name The Armory.

The first time that his mother lost control of the town, he ignored her pleas for help. Stefan however couldn't and his brother had been living there with Enzo and Caroline for the last two and a half years. Being the good soul that Stefan usually was, his brother forgave Lily and earned the trust of her heretic family. He imagined they were on big happy family living in his mansion. His brother must be quite pleased with himself.

Damon only planned to return to Mystic Falls when Elena awoke but when Stefan called asking for his help this time, his brother had a very interesting proposition for him. Stefan claimed that the heretics had been conducting some research into the spell that kept Elena asleep and there might be something the heretics could do to wake Elena up if Damon helped them with their Armory problem. The rational part of him told him to ignore his brother. They were using Elena as a way to manipulate him, something much bigger was at play and he should stay out of it but the part of him that loved Elena couldn't ignore the information. If there was a way to bring Elena back without killing Bonnie then Damon had to try.

**S-2**

If someone asked Bonnie ten years ago where they thought she would be at this moment, the very last answer she would have given was standing on the clock tower in Mystic Falls with a vampire. She probably would have said graduating college with her two best friends but with Elena in a coffin and Caroline trying to make her relationship with Stefan work, the college option appeared rather lonely. Instead, three years ago she left for Europe with Alaric and Damon to keep them out of trouble. It was supposed to be just that summer to help Alaric recover from the heartbreak of Josie's death but a cavalier comment by Damon that she should major in witchcraft changed her life. Bonnie had dismissed it at first but the more she thought about it the more it felt like the most natural thing to do.

When the summer finished, Damon wanted to take her back to college. He didn't want her throwing her life away. Elena would have wanted Bonnie and Caroline to continue on with their lives without her. Bonnie argued with him. She told him she wanted to devote her life to magic. That she wanted to get better at magic so that she could break the spell that kept Elena asleep. At that point Damon sighed reluctantly and he took them to Romania. There she met a coven of Bennett witches that he had hidden away decades before as part of his deal with Emily Bennett.

Bonnie thrived there. She learned about the nature of spells, how herbs interact together, how herbs interacted with spells and boosted their power and how to write her own spells. She created her own grimoire with spells entirely of her own creation. She was sure with enough research she could break the spell Kai cast and return Elena to them. In a strange way, it was probably a good thing that they returned home to Mystic Falls. She needed to study the magic that connected her to Elena and that magic was at its strongest when they were in the same room.

Her watch beeped with the five minute warning that they needed to get to the boarding house to meet with Stefan. Damon's hand easily slipped around her waist and she held on as they jumped down to the ground to meet Alaric.

**S-3**

Alaric watched Damon and Bonnie land on the ground safely. Every time they did that his heart hammered against his chest with fear for Bonnie. He knew Bonnie was a witch and that she could handle herself, both he and Damon had made sure that she could defend herself, but he didn't like her following after Damon. Damon may be Alaric's best friend but he knew what Damon was. He knew that trouble followed wherever Damon went but Bonnie had become as headstrong as Damon and she would not allow the vampire to leave her behind for her safety.

There had been several instances where trouble had found them. Admittedly, not all of those times were because of Damon but 90% of them were. Alaric had realised that it was Damon's curiosity that often got him into trouble. His best friend liked to poke his head where it didn't belong. The vampire assumed because he was a vampire he had a natural advantage over everyone else but that advantage only existed against untrained humans. The trouble was seldom ever human. As Bonnie grew stronger their plans to get out of trouble became riskier and riskier.

Alaric never wanted to come back to this town. He had been enjoying Europe and Asia with Damon and Bonnie. He knew they weren't supposed to stay away so long but time just flew by and before they realized it, a whopping three years had passed. If it weren't for the fact that Damon and Bonnie very much needed him to watch their backs, he never would have come back with them. They had taken care of him when he was lost in grief. He did several stupid things, some of them he's sure he had Damon compel away.

This town held his best and worst memories. He didn't know the full details of what Stefan wanted but if it lead to Elena waking up it would probably come with something very bad as well. Good things never happened in this town without something equally as bad. He's proud of himself for getting Jeremy out and away from this place. Elena's brother is doing so well on his own. If she were awake she would be very proud of him.

Alaric was broken from his thoughts when Damon placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's getting going, we wouldn't want to keep Stefan and his lovey dovey family waiting," Damon said with a tinge of bitterness.

Alaric nodded. He made eye contact with Bonnie. They had both agreed that they would listen to what Stefan had to say. If they didn't like it they were going to use every weapon they had available to them to convince Damon to walk away. They didn't need to get pulled back into the devastating cycle that was life in Mystic Falls.

**S-4**

The clock struck eight and Stefan was very pleased when there was a knock at the door. At least Damon had thought to knock and not stroll in like he still owned the place. Lily and the others were waiting by the fireplace. If Caroline were there with him she would probably tell him to cross his fingers and pray this works. Damon had always been inherently selfish so he shouldn't have any problems doing what needed to be done once he could get Elena back.

Stefan opened the door wide, "Damon, how good to see you," Stefan said looking him over. Of course in three years he hadn't changed. His two companions however seemed different. They seemed almost wary of him. Alaric had a few more wrinkles around the eyes and a shorter haircut. Bonnie didn't look like she aged but her hair was cut short in a bob.

"Stefan, brother, how art though," Damon said trying to step into the house only for him to be blocked.

"You need to be invited in," Stefan revealed.

"You handed my house over to someone else?" Damon hissed.

"It's technically our mother's house since she is still alive. The deed is in Mave's name. She's supposed to be here at eight," Stefan explained.

"And who is Mave exactly? Another one of your Brady Bunch?" Damon asked sarcastically.

There was a loud snort behind them, "Hardly," a girl of average height with reddish brown hair said. The girl stared at him.

"Are you going to let me in or stare at me all day. I know I'm roguishly handsome," Damon teased.

"Go on in, I don't really care who goes into that house," Mave answered.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes, "Then why is your name on the deed?" she asked.

Mave shrugged, "A left over detail from when my pack tried to take over the town."

"You're a werewolf," Bonnie said alarmed.

"Bingo, so I wouldn't get on my bad side vampire," she said in warning.

Bonnie arched an eyebrow, "I'm not a vampire. If I were you, I would stay out of my way."

"Girls, girls," Stefan said stepping in between them. "No need to get into any fights. We are just here to talk."

Bonnie's gaze snapped to Stefan, "What about Stefan? You've been rather scant on the details. Only using the possibility of awaking Elena to lure us here."

"Like mother, like son," Mave commented moving passed them to go inside.

"I thought you settled things with the werewolves?" Alaric asked his gaze focused on the werewolf.

"It's complicated," Stefan responded.

"It's always complicated," Damon said testing to see if his foot could cross the threshold. When his foot landed on the other side he strode forward looking around. "Love what you did with the place, NOT."

Bonnie looked at Stefan, "Where is Caroline?"

"She went to help Hayley track down a witch that could remove the curse from Rebecca. She has this idea in her head that she owes Klaus for the werewolf anti-venom he gave us," Stefan explained. "She should be back next week."

Bonnie noted that Stefan didn't sound too thrilled that Caroline was involving herself in the drama of the Original family. She stepped into the house and followed after Damon.

"For the record Stefan, I don't like this. If we are going to help you I expect full disclosure about everything, even the tiniest detail that you think we don't need to know," Alaric said looking down at the vampire.

"I promise I'll tell you everything," Stefan said closing the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	2. The Device

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Vampire Diaries.

Alaric leaned against the doorway. He felt more comfortable being close to the exit. Damon had set himself up by the bottle of bourbon. He was already on his second drink, having downed the first one in one go. Bonnie seated herself on one of the sofas with Stefan and another heretic that he was guessing was Valerie. Opposite them, on the other sofa was Lily, and the married couple, Nora and Mary-Louise. Enzo was perched on the arm of the sofa next to Lily. The mute heretic called Beau was standing by the fireplace with Mave. Leaning against the wall behind Stefan was an Asian looking man. Alaric guessed that was Oscar. There were three other people with him. One was probably Malcolm and the other two would be Derrick and James, two new syphons that Lily had picked up. There was supposed to be a third new syphon, a young teenage girl, but Alaric didn't see her anywhere.

"It's good to see you Damon," Lily said in a pleasant voice. "And your friends," she furthered added with a subtle tilt of her head in Bonnie's and Alaric's directions.

"Cut with the chit-chat Lily, how do we wake up Elena," Damon asked getting straight to the purpose of why he was there in the first place.

"I thought you wanted all the details," Stefan asked looking at Alaric.

"We do," Alaric clarified. "My role as best friend #1…"

"#2," Bonnie coughed. It was a running joke between the two of them over who was more important.

"Is making sure that Damon doesn't jump into anything recklessly," Alaric finished ignoring Bonnie's assertion that he was #2.

"So you're trying to prevent Damon from being Damon," Stefan surmised.

"What exactly is this about?" Bonnie asked.

"A simple exchange," Enzo offered.

Alaric snorted, nothing was ever simple when there were vampires involved.

"Damon we require your help. In return we will break the spell that keeps Elena asleep," Lily explained focusing on Damon.

That was exactly what Alaric expected her to do. Dangle the Elena carrot in front of Damon.

"Are we ever going to get any more details because I'm two seconds away from taking Damon and getting the hell out of Mystic Falls," Alaric said exasperated.

"Yes," Damon agreed, "We would specifically like to know how exactly you're going to break the spell?" Damon asked.

Lily gave Damon a patronizing smile, "If I tell you that, then what's to stop you from taking the information and not helping us?"

"Forget this. If that is as much information as you're going to tell us to get us to say yes then I'm better off finding my own way to end the spell," Bonnie said standing angrily.

"You cannot do it yourself," Valerie explained. "The spell is tied to your life force. Your magic is connected to your life force and is only as strong as your life force. You cannot use your magic to break a spell that's tied into your life force. You need an external coven to do it."

Bonnie was already aware of that fact but she schooled her features to feign interest in what Valerie had to say. She didn't want them knowing how much Bonnie had learnt over the last five years.

"A coven like ours would be willing to help," Lily offered.

Bonnie had her own, much stronger coven of Bennett witches, in Romania, they just needed to find the right spell to break it.

"Even if you somehow managed to find a coven willing to help you," Malcolm said kicking off the wall and walking towards Lily, "You would need Elena."

"And I am the only person that knows where Elena's coffin is," Lily finished.

"What!" Damon said his blue eyes opening wide in alarm.

Alaric registered the breeze of air that passed him as Damon used his vampire speed to check on Elena's tomb. He cast a glance at Bonnie who had a very worried look. Damon returned less than a minute later, heading straight for Lily. Enzo and Malcolm intercepted him, the latter holding him up against the wall with his left hand while he buried his right hand in Damon's chest, squeezing his heart.

"Leave him alone," Bonnie said angrily standing up. She was tempted to hurt all of them but that would just escalate the situation.

"Once he promises to behave," Enzo said. "Lily is strictly off limits."

"I will," Damon agreed.

Enzo let him go and as expected, he tried to lunge for Lily again. Stefan snapped his neck.

"What the hell Stefan?" Bonnie exclaimed.

"It is probably best if we talk without Damon's rash tendencies interfering," Stefan suggested. "When it comes to Elena he's never been able to think straight."

"How could you do this, you and Elena loved each other," Bonnie asked. "How could you let Lily steal her coffin?"

"That was a long time ago. Elena is safe. Lily would not hurt her," Stefan assured them.

"According to you, but she certainly hasn't hesitated in using Elena to get us here," Alaric pointed out.

"It was necessary. We need your help," Stefan insisted.

"So you keep saying but you have yet to explain to us exactly what you want help with," Alaric replied angrily.

"The Armory," Stefan repeated for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, yes, yes," Bonnie said throwing her hands up in the air. "The mysterious Armory you told us nothing about. Unless you think there name was all we needed to understand," she continued sarcastically.

"Still as feisty as ever witch," Enzo commented sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Lily again.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't make me show you how feisty I can get."

"Enough of this bullshit,"Mave said speaking for the first time. "The Armory is a group of dangerous individuals with a wealth of resources at their disposal. They use their resources to collect rare items as well as control supernatural beings. There is something in the cave network below Mystic Falls that they require and they have tasked us with getting it for them."

"I don't understand what you need us for?" Alaric stated.

Mave smiled, "I said that as well to the Armory. If they wanted something they could get it themselves but then they made me understand." She pulled open her blouse to reveal a device embedded above her heart.

"This is how they control us, all of us. Every individual living here has one embedded in them," Mave explained.

Mary-Louise and Nora pulled aside their blouses to reveal the device and Stefan and Malcolm both took off their shirts to display a circular metal device above their hearts. The device was embedded in their chest and there was a red light in the middle of the device that was lit indicating that it was on. On Mave the skin around the device was red and swollen. Her body was trying to heal around the device but couldn't. On the vampire, the skin around the device had healed.

"I understand why it would be a problem for the werewolves," Bonnie said before turning to Stefan, "But can't you just pull it off?"

"Our youngest tried that. She didn't last more than five minutes before she died a very painful death," Lily said sadly. "We believe the device had a concentrated dose of werewolf venom contained within and once it is tampered with it releases it into our system."

"How?" Alaric asked curiously.

"We don't know?" Lily responded.

"There also seems to be something about the device that blocks our compulsion and our magic," Mary-Louise said. "We're operating in the dark."

"Where is the device that was pulled off?" Bonnie asked.

"We don't know. She pulled it off in the forest somewhere," Lily responded.

"You want us to figure it out for you," Alaric concluded.

"What about Caroline and Matt?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Caroline left just before the Armory arrived," Stefan said quickly.

"Donovan is working for the Armory," Enzo spat. "They put him in charge of us and he's enjoying having us do his every bidding."

"Enough talk for tonight. Breakfast is at 8:00am sharp. You need to stay out of the Armory's sights or they will put a device on you as well. You can work closely with Stefan to figure out how to get the thing off of us," Lily stated.

"And don't forget the werewolves. We're in this too Lily," Mave reminded her.

"Yes, you won't be forgotten. We did invite you here," Lily said with a fake smile.

Mave gave her a once over that clearly said that she didn't believe a word that came out of Lily Salvatore's mouth.

"Enzo please show our guests to their rooms," Lily ordered.

**S-2**

Damon slowly returned to consciousness. The first thing he saw was Bonnie's warm brown eyes filled with concern. He was sprawled out on his old bed, his head resting in her lap.

"I know that look Bennet and it doesn't bode well," he said sitting up and turning his neck from side to side, "Stefan?" he asked wanting confirmation that it was his brother who snapped his neck.

"Yes," Alaric said. He was standing by the window looking out at the grounds.

"On the bright side at least my old bedroom still looks the same," Damon said looking around. "Did you find out where Elena is?"

"No, Lily's not budging on that," when Damon made to get up Bonnie stopped him with her magic, "And killing her won't get us anywhere."

"Did you try…"

"Yes," Bonnie said cutting him off, "They must have cloaked her," she explained knowing that Damon was asking if she tried using her magic to locate Elena's coffin.

"Why couldn't it be easy for once?" Damon asked. "Do we know what they want?"

"Sort of," Bonnie admitted getting off the bed and walking over to a cupboard in Damon's room.

"What kind of answer is that?" Damon asked her with a scowl.

"They gave us an explanation but we think they're holding back," Alaric told him.

"Of course they are holding back. Nothing is ever straight when you're dealing with my mother. I'm guessing since we are still here, we have agreed to help," Damon inferred.

"It's Elena. You know we have to help," Bonnie said rummaging through the cupboard. "I don't like the idea of her coffin being in a location that we don't know. When we get her back, we need to find a place that she can rest undisturbed."

"I wonder how the Armory tags people with the device," Alaric pondered out loud. "Yet another detail I'll have to drag out of Stefan tomorrow."

"I think Oscar might be our best bet. Caroline said he's a stoner. If we get him high enough he might sing like a bird," Bonnie suggested walking away from the cupboard with a pile of sheets in her hand. "And I happened to bring just the herbs to do it."

Damon pointed a finger at Bonnie, "Before we talk about the herbs that you have not shared with me Bennett, I feel like I should ask more about this device first?" he reasoned.

Alaric finally moved away from the window and filled him in on the scant details they had learned in the previous hour.

"We need to keep out of sight during the day. We don't want to attract the attention of the Armory," Bonnie suggested in a tone that they both knew meant there would be hell to pay if either of them disobeyed her. "Oh, breakfast is at 8:00am sharp," she further added.

"Yeah Enzo did kind of stress that to us, repeatedly," Alaric agreed.

"What happens if you're late?" Damon asked with a gleam in his eye.

"Or early? I don't think I can wait till eight to eat," Alaric said. He had this ridiculous wake up time of 5:00am followed by a rigorous exercise routine for an hour then breakfast. That was on nights when they weren't getting themselves out of trouble.

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow," Bonnie said picking up a pillow off the bed and throwing it on the floor where she had piled the extra sheets from the cupboard.

"You're welcome to my bed," Damon teased patting the spot next to him.

Bonnie punched his arm, "The floor looks much more comfortable."

"Just remember in the morning that it was your choice!" Damon said to her.

Alaric settled on the other side of the bed and Damon gave him a look.

"What? I'm too old for the floor," Alaric said.

"It's a good thing I'm very comfortable with my sexuality," Damon quipped.

**S-3**

"Stefan?" Valerie said in a tone that clearly conveyed her worry. She was in his bedroom. Lily had ordered her to make sure that Stefan didn't have second thoughts about the plan.

He did not respond to her, choosing instead to stare at the phone in his hand. Valerie knew he was waiting for Caroline to call. She promised to call him every night but that hadn't happened. He was lucky if she called every three days and when she did call, it was all about her and Hayley. She knew Stefan hadn't told her a thing about the Armory and the trouble they were in. She knew he was hoping that Caroline would stay away long enough for them to resolve this issue.

"It was the only way," Valerie reminded him.

"Lying to him like that," Stefan answered back lifting his head to stare at her.

"Stefan if the situation was reverse, Damon would not hesitate to manipulate you into helping him or have you forgotten what Damon has done to you over the years?" Valerie said with a frown.

"That does not mean I have to sink to his level," Stefan countered.

"Would you rather us all die instead of doing whatever is necessary for us to survive?" Valerie asked harshly.

"There should be a limit, a line we do not cross," Stefan insisted.

"Lily makes that call," Valerie responded taking hold of Stefan's hand and rubbing her thumb across the back of his hand to soothe him. She knew he was struggling with some of the methods that Lily liked to use to get things done.

"How do you know if it's the right call?" Stefan asked letting Valerie comfort him.

"We don't but we are all still alive and it's because of Lily so I trust her to make the hard decisions," Valerie said honestly.

The sound of _Sweet Caroline_ by Neil Diamond filled the room. It was Stefan's ring tone for his girlfriend. Valerie took that as her cue to leave the room. As she closed the door she heard Stefan's tone drop to that husky voice he reserves for only Caroline, his precious girlfriend that does not appreciate how amazing he is.

She passed Nora and Mary-Louise on the way to her room.

"You're wasting your time love," Nora advised.

"I'm sure you can find someone more worthy of you," Mary-Louise added.

Valerie knew better than to respond to them. The last time she reminded them of their many break-ups and the first broken engagement, it stirred up trouble for a month in the boarding house. That's the last thing they needed at the moment. They needed to be united against this threat. She still remembers how some of the hybrids tried to rebel and the glee on Donovan's face as he used the remote that controlled the devices that were around the hybrids' necks to separate their heads very violently from their bodies. It had been a horrific scene even by vampire standards.

She paused in her walk towards her bedroom door. How did the Armory know which members of pack were hybrids and which were not? Her coven hadn't known when they first engaged them and found out the hard way when they bit Nora and Beau. That had been two years ago. The pack that lived there was very tightlipped. The armory couldn't have known that information unless there was a traitor among the pack or within their own ranks? As far as she was aware, Donovan didn't join their side until after they had demonstrated their power.

**S-4**

Enzo knocked on Lily's door, "Come in," her regal voice floated out to him.

He opened the door and found her seated in her silk robe at her vanity brushing her long brown hair. She looked at him through the mirror in front of her.

"Yes Lorenzo?"

"Our guests are all settled in Damon's room," he informed her.

"They did not want more than one room? This is a large boarding house?" she asked with an arched eyebrow much like Damon would do sometimes.

"No," Enzo replied

Lily sighed. "Pity. I want them separated tomorrow. They are a danger to us together. You and Stefan stick to Damon. Oscar and Beau will keep Alaric entertained and Mary-Louise and Nora can handle the witch."

"What about the Armory?" Enzo asked.

"The rest of us can do what they want tomorrow," Lily told him as she calmly continued to brush her hair.

"What if they ask for us?" Enzo queried with a worried tone.

"Lorenzo, are we not vampires? If they ask, I will call and you can present yourself in an instant. This town isn't very big," Lily said, her eyes boring into his.

"I hope so," Enzo replied.

Lily stood and walked over to him. She cupped his left check in her right hand. He leaned into her caress the way both of them knew he would.

"Is everything going according to plan?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied a bit breathlessly.

Lily smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast," she withdrew her hand and returned to her vanity.

Enzo knew he was dismissed. As he was turning the door handle, she spoke to him again, "Remember," she started.

"Breakfast is at 8:00am sharp," he automatically finished for her.

The last thing he saw before closing the door was Lily's smiling face. It was enough for him to relax and believe that things would be ok.

**S-5**

**Flash Forward**

Darkness, it surrounded her everywhere. She was sitting in a romantic restaurant having dinner with Damon while he proclaimed his love to her. The world she created while she slept was filled with romantic rendezvous with him. Without any outside influences, he was wonderful. She was never mad at him. He always did and said the right thing. He was the man she knew he could become.

The darkness meant that her dreams were ending. She was waking up. Her body was numb, weak from her sleep. She was vaguely aware of a hand holding her right hand. It must be Damon's. She expected to open her eyes and find herself in his bedroom. He would be looking at her as if she were the most precious thing on the planet. She couldn't wait to make all of those dreams a reality with him.

A small part of her did realise that there was a possibility that her waking up meant that one of her best friends was dead but she hoped not. If anyone could find a way around the spell it was Bonnie. Elena was determined to have her cake and eat it too.

After struggling for a little while, she was able to open her eyes and stare at the white ceiling. The room was much brighter than Damon's bedroom should have been. She turned her head to the right and was met with the concerned blue eyes of her other best friend Caroline.

"Welcome back Sleeping Beauty," a male voice said on her left.

Elena turned her head to the other side to see Enzo smirking at her. Where was Damon?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	3. The Armory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Vampire Diaries.
> 
> Merry Christmas! Here's the next chapter!

Bonnie slowly woke up in a nice warm cocoon, just the way she liked it. She had been having a pleasant dream about her cousins in Romania. There was a game they taught her where they used magic to control a stone and fly it through a complicated maze. The aim was to get the stone to the end of the maze without touching any of the obstacles. It was a game that tested your magical strength and your control over your magic. The witch with the fastest time was the winner. In her dream, she had just defeated Claudia, the reigning champion and the strongest of her cousins. Bonnie had always thought herself a strong witch but when she met Claudia she realised that she had a very long way to go in developing of her magic.

She turned around on the bed to look at the bedside table that housed her alarm clock, only to find it wasn't her bedside table at all. It was then that she remembered that she was in Damon's old bedroom back in Mystic Falls and she wasn't on the floor anymore. Instead she was on the bed under the covers with a fluffy pillow under her head. She looked outside and guessed it was close to eight am. She lifted her head towards the door where she expected to see Damon, "Breakfast time?" she asked sleepily.

Damon of course glared at her. She had sealed him into the room so he couldn't sneak out at night and create any drama. He was seated on the ground leaning against the door sulking. "Bonnie, I cannot express how deeply disappointed I am that you have no faith in me!"

"Oh I have faith in you alright, enough faith to know that the minute you thought we were asleep you were going to go torture Lily into giving you Elena's location," Bonnie replied confidently. She had spent three years in Europe with him. She knew Damon better than she knew herself.

"Fair enough," Damon conceded which caused a smile to tug at Bonnie's lips. They had an honest dynamic and when she called him out on his bullshit he never denied it. "But why does Alaric get to leave?" Damon pouted cutely. Sometimes he could be an adorable puppy when he wanted to be but Bonnie would always reminder herself how sharp a puppy's teeth could be.

"Alaric knows how to behave when behind enemy lines," Bonnie reminded him. When Damon raised a questioning eyebrow at her statement she added, "Most of the time." There were a few times when they had to stop Alaric from doing something stupid. In the score Bonnie had been keeping, it was 80% Damon, 15% Alaric and 5% her who did something totally reckless. What annoyed Bonnie was Damon's recklessness always seemed to work out in the end. He claimed it was genius, Bonnie just thought he was a lucky jackass.

There was a knock at the door that they both ignored. Bonnie got out of bed, sliding her feet straight into the bunny slippers that were on her side of the bed. Another smile formed on her face. Damon was also a thoughtful jackass when he wanted to be.

The knocking continued until finally Enzo's voice said through the door, "It's time for breakfast."

Neither of them responded to him. Bonnie put on her robe, grabbed some clothes from her suitcase and started looking for her hairbrush. She needed to get her hair out of her face before she did anything else.

"It's in the bathroom along with your other cosmetic products," Damon said to her.

"I thought you didn't want to stay long enough for us to unpack," Bonnie queried.

"I don't but you're a real fright in the morning if you don't complete your morning routine," he fired back at her.

"Gee thanks Damon and all this time I thought you liked me in the mornings," she said sticking out her tongue and heading into the bathroom.

Enzo continued knocking at the door and calling their names. Bonnie decided to leave the bathroom door open so she could hear what was happening. She cast a spell on the shower to mute the noise from the water so it wouldn't interfere with hearing what was happening outside.

After the third request from Enzo to join them for breakfast, Damon finally decided to respond.

"We'll be there in 30 minutes," Damon said with a fake yawn at the end.

"Breakfast is at 8:00am sharp," Enzo pressed. "We are now five minutes late!"

"Come on Enzo, I'm sure an exception can be made," Damon pushed."Bonnie's not a vampire. She needs her rest to recover from the jetlag. Believe me, I know what a drag it is having to wait on the witch. I've been doing it for three years!"

Bonnie scowled in the shower. Did he have to be so acerbic sometimes?

"Damon don't be so difficult," Enzo responded through the door not buying Damon's lines.

"You asked us for help," Damon replied sharply. Bonnie could hear he was losing his patients with his old friend."You would think you'd be more accommodating to us. We could leave," Damon threatened.

"You would not leave Elena behind," Enzo pointed out. "And is there any reason why we are having this conversation through the door?" Enzo further asked.

"Bonnie isn't decent. It wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me to allow strange men into the room," Damon responded.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Where one Earth did Damon get this strange idea that he is a gentleman?

Enzo snorted on the other side and said something about Damon never being much of a gentleman.

"I could say the same about you," he reminded Enzo.

"Fine, today we make an exception," Enzo caved.

"Great," Damon said. "We'll see you in half an hour. Make sure you have pancakes. Bonnie's always cranky if you don't feed her, her pancakes!"

Bonnie finished up quickly in the shower and emerged fully dressed to find Damon still pouting by the door. She gave him a proud smile.

"What?" Damon asked confused.

"You accomplished something without snapping someone's neck, or pulling their heart out or compelling them or..."

"Ok, ok, ok, I get the idea witchy," Damon said. "Don't get accustomed to this."

"Don't worry, I know you're just itching to pull someone's heart out," Bonnie responded. She closed her eyes and muttered a spell to unseal the room.

"Last one to breakfast is a rotten egg," Damon said with a mischievous grin before he used his vamp speed to exit the room.

Bonnie couldn't help but chuckle. There was never a boring day when you were friends with Damon Salvatore.

**S-2**

Damon was leaning against the entrance to the kitchen when Bonnie finally made it downstairs. It took her a whole two minutes to follow after him. He bowed dramatically before her, "Lead the way my Witch."

"So I'm not a Lady?" Bonnie teased.

"Wouldn't know. Don't know any," Damon responded sarcastically.

He followed after her but stopped when she came to a complete halt just inside the the stiffness in her shoulders, he knew she didn't approve of what she saw at the breakfast table. He walked to her side to take in the scene but his keen sense of smell already told him what he was going to see. The heretics had compelled a group of humans to sit at the breakfast table while they feasted on their jugulars. Damon could smell the scent of fresh blood in the air. One of the humans was O negative, his favourite blood type.

"Don't be so judgey," Damon whispered in her ear.

"That's easy for you to say, you're one of them," she hissed back.

"Then you won't mind if I partake in breakfast then," he replied cockily.

She glared at him, "Do what you want!"

He knew she disliked it when he fed directly from a human. He had spent the majority of his time in Europe feeding from a blood bag. The only time he had fresh blood was when they were fighting someone and Damon sank his fangs into them or he was injured and Bonnie or Alaric let him feed from their wrist so he could recover faster.

Damon decided to give in to temptation and sit down next to the girl with the O negative blood. He took her wrist gently in his hand and massaged his thumb soothingly over the area he was going to feed from. It was a habit he developed to relax Bonnie before he bit into her wrist. O negative always had a slight tanginess to it that Damon enjoyed. It had been so long since he had been able to feast on this rare blood type. Alaric and Bonnie only allowed him to steal the more common blood types from the blood banks.

Bonnie stayed rooted to the spot with her arms crossed angrily in front of her. "Am I supposed to enjoy this breakfast?" she asked shooting a filthy look at Enzo who was seated on the other side of the girl that Damon had been feeding had hassled them this morning to come down to breakfast yet there was nothing for her to eat.

Lily who was stationed behind a good looking man with her fangs buried in his neck, pulled away from her meal to answer her. "I'm sorry, we don't usually stock anything other than blood. Your friend Alaric went with Oscar and Beau to the next town over to get food,"Lily explained.

"I always thought you were supposed to prepare for the needs of guests before they arrive not after," Bonnie fired back.

"An oversight on my part," Lily admitted with a deadly smile, "It's been a while since we had human guests. I assure you it won't happen again."

Damon pulled away from the wrist he was feeding on to look at his mother, "Why did Oscar and Beau have to accompany Alaric?I'm sure he was capable of finding the town by himself. After all he used to live here?"

Bonnie walked angrily over to the counter. She tore off a length of paper towel, rolled it into a ball and threw it at him. He caught it easily and used it to wipe the blood from around his mouth.

"We didn't want anyone from The Armory spotting him. I thought it best if Oscar and Beau were with him so they could hide him from The Armory," Lily explained.

"Alaric is quite the capable hunter, he doesn't need help, much less from two heretics," Damon replied throwing the used paper towel back at Bonnie who ducked in disgust. 'I'm not picking that up' she mouthed at him.

"A little bit of help is usually a good thing Damon," Lily said eyeing the interaction between Bonnie and her son, "But I think you already know that."

Damon frowned, "I have no idea what you mean mother."

"I want you to help your brother research the devices they implanted in our chest," Lily said. "He's managed to track down an X-ray technician working at a hospital close by. He plans to compel the man tonight. I want you to go with him and stand guard while they take x-rays of the device."

"Speaking of my brother, where is he?" Damon asked casting a glance around the room. Nora and Mary-Louise were both sharing a girl, Malcolm and Enzo both had their own girl and Valerie was sinking her fangs into a young attractive man that had some similarities to Stefan.

"He refuses to let me teach him how to control the ripper side of him. He thinks the risk isn't worth it," Lily explained sadly.

"Ah, he's still on the Bambi diet then," Damon quipped. He compelled the girl he was feeding on to bite into his wrist to take some of his blood to heal the wound on her wrist.

"Damon, please don't give your brother a hard time. He's come a long way," Lily said in a stern motherly voice.

Damon crossed his hands over his chest, "If you don't want me interrupting your corruption of Stefan,why don't you just give us Elena and we'll be on our way."

"I know it may not seem like it now Damon but I'm doing this for you own benefit," Lily replied.

"Like leaving us with Giuseppe while you became a vampire and carted off to Europe was for our own benefit," Damon chided.

"I will not rehash this conversation with you again Damon. I am needed in the cave now. Feel free to roam around the house and the house only. The last thing we need is the Armory spotting you and tagging you as well," Lily said harshly before getting up and leaving the kitchen.

**S-3**

Alaric was slowly losing his patience with his tagalongs.

**One:** They didn't allow him to drive.

**Two:** They chose the slowest route with the most traffic to get to the grocery store.

**Three:** Oscar's singing was out of tune.

**Four:** Once they were out of traffic, Alaric was fairly sure he could walk faster than Beau was driving.

**Five:** They made him cover himself over with a dark blanket on the back seat when they entered Mystic Falls which, since the AC wasn't on, was making him hot!

All of that was giving him visions of pulling their hearts from their chest. He didn't know if that meant he had spent way too much time with Damon or he had gained an appreciation for the quickest way to kill a vampire. He was just imagining pushing his hand through the front seat into Beau's chest when the car came to an abrupt halt.

"Make sure that blanket is covering you properly. We don't want them to notice you," Oscar's voice said in a panic.

"Them," Alaric asked as he moved off the back seat to lie across the foot space just behind the front seats.

"The Armory," Oscar replied in a grave voice.

There was silence for a few moments before he heard, "Good morning Oscar and Beau." It was a voice Alaric recognized as Matt Donovan.

Matt continued to talk to them, "Fancy seeing you out so early. It looks like you're coming into town from an excursion outside. If I remember correctly Lily insists that you all have breakfast together at 8am every day. In fact, I personally dropped off you breakfast this morning," Matt stated in a suspicious tone.

"We needed to get supplies for the cave. Lily sent us for it so we could start as soon as breakfast was over," Oscar replied.

"Where are the supplies?" Matt asked.

"In the trunk," Oscar said. The fear in his voice was obvious.

There were supplies in the trunk along with the groceries. Alaric hoped they didn't ask to look in the trunk next. He wasn't sure Oscar could come up with an excuse for the groceries quickly enough.

"Really, I think my friends and I will accompany you to the boarding house. It might be time for an inspection," Matt said icily.

"Inspection?" Oscar squeaked out.

Alaric had to suppress his groan. The vampire was making it very obvious that they were hiding something. Weed apparently still killed brain cells even if you were a vampire.

"We'll follow behind you," Matt stated. "Get moving," he ordered.

"Ok," Oscar said.

Alaric imagined sweat dripping down Oscar's face. The car started to move forward again and Alaric poked his head out from the blanket to look between the seats at Oscar. He was indeed looking paler than usual and quite fidgety. Lily really needed to select her babysitters more carefully. Someone like Enzo or Malcolm would have probably been able to lie their way out more smoothly.

"This isn't good," Oscar said.

"Maybe if you hadn't sounded like you were doing something wrong, they would have left you alone," Alaric spoke up.

Oscar was about to respond before he was yelling at Beau to look out. Beau mashed his breaks hard, causing Alaric's body to press against the front seat. His head which had been low between the front seats, slammed into the centerpiece.

"Cover yourself!" Oscar hissed pushing Alaric back and pulling the blanket over him.

"Watch where you're going Vampire!" a voice called out.

"We were!" Oscar shouted back. "You pulled in front of us werewolf!"

Alaric groaned. Now was so not the time for the usual vampire and werewolf fight. He heard Matt and a few other voices talking to the wolves telling them to back off and get back to work. Words continued to be exchanged and tempers started getting out of control on both sides. Beau and Oscar eventually got out of the car to argue their point more clearly leaving him hiding in the back seat alone.

While Matt and the other Armory members were busy with stopping the argument, the back door to the car that was away from the argument opened and Alaric saw Mave crouched there.

"Come on," she whispered. "We can't let them find you."

Alaric frowned at her, "How did you know I was here?"

"Because the vampires never leave the boarding house in the morning. It was stupid of Lily to think that Beau could have gotten out and back in without the Armory spotting you all," Mave said.

"We got in last night safely," Alaric responded quietly.

"Because Lily set up a diversion last night that kept them occupied so you could get in safely. Look," she said flatly, "You can come with me, or you can stay here and get caught. I can guarantee you won't like the tag they implant in your chest," she said. "They're very uncomfortable."

Alaric lifted his head and glanced out the windscreen. The argument was still going on but whenever they were finished they would still be going to the boarding house escorted by The Armory. He could be discovered there. He made a decision and scooted out the back seat and crouched down next to her.

She whistled softly and then one of her guys threw a punch at Oscar hitting him square in the jaw.

"Keep low," she whispered. "We're heading to the trees."

"Ok," he said following behind her to the tree line that was ten feet away.

They made it safely to the trees and he followed her through the forest for about 300 feet before she stopped.

"I'm really sorry but this is necessary," she said turning around to face him.

Alaric frowned and was about to ask her what she meant when there was a sharp pain behind his head and everything went black.

**S-4**

When Mary Louise and Nora had finished sucking on their breakfast, they invited Bonnie to join them upstairs while she waited for Alaric to return. They offered to go over the basic requirements for the spell to break Bonnie's and Elena's arched her eyebrow in surprise. Lily had been playing coy with the details so far. Why the sudden change of heart? She glanced at Damon, who had moved on to another human for breakfast, and he signaled for her to go with them. She didn't like the way Lily was separating them but Damon wanted her to play along so she would.

She followed them through the house to their bedroom upstairs. It was an interesting blend of their personalities. From what Caroline had told her, Nora was very hip and modern. She loved the new century. However, Mary-Louise was still firmly stuck in the past and it caused a lot of tension between them. She could see the different styles in the bedroom. Mary-Louise walked over to an antique trunk, probably her own, and pulled out an old map. She walked over to a modern glass table, probably Nora's and laid it on the table.

"Ley lines," Bonnie said looking at the map. "Your plan to break the spell between Elena and I revolves around ley lines."

"We plan to draw power from the ley lines. Some very strong ones converge in Mystic Falls. That is why it's a haven for supernatural activity," Nora said.

"I know that," Bonnie snapped, "Even novice witches know that. It was the first thing my grams taught me."

"If you're going to give us that attitude then maybe we shouldn't help you," Mary-Louise threatened.

Bonnie cocked her head to the side, "You were never going to tell my anything significant anyway," she said calling their bluff. "The entire time we've been here Lily has done nothing but play smoke and mirrors with us. Does she even know where Elena's coffin is?"

Mary-Louise was going to reply when there was a loud bang downstairs. It sounded like someone had kicked the front door in hard.

"Heretics get your asses downstairs! Roll call," a voice Bonnie recognized as Matt shouted loudly. That meant The Armory was here.

"Stay here," Nora said. "He usually just likes to exert his authority over us and then leave."

"Remember, you can't be discovered," Mary-Louise said just before they left the room.

Bonnie waited a full two seconds before she went in search of Damon. She found him just outside the main living room listening to what was going on inside. She touched him gently on the shoulder and then cast the spell that Kai used to make people invisible.

"It doesn't hurt to take extra precautions," she whispered in his ear.

"Great, I can get closer now," Damon said with a cocky smirk.

**S-5**

The minute he felt the spell take affect he started moving into the living area. He wanted to see firsthand what was going on. Bonnie had reached out to stop him but he had been too fast for her. He noticed Oscar and Beau were standing behind Matt and two other men dressed in a grey uniforms. Damon recognized the woman that was standing with them as Lucy Bennett, Bonnie's cousin. Damon had been right to tell Bonnie not to inform her about their cousins in Europe. If she was working for The Armory, they needed to be very wary of her. However, it was what he did not see that bothered him the most. Where the hell was Alaric?

Lily was talking to Matt, Enzo firmly by her side, while she tried to sell some bullshit about needing supplies to continue their work in the cave but Matt wasn't buying it. Mary-Louise and Nora sat together on the couch, hands firmly clasped together, Malcolm stood quietly in the back on the room taking in the scene and Valerie sat by herself on the couch opposite Nora and her lover.

"Matt we have complied with all of your requests," Lily said in a calm voice. "We are working as fast as we can to find what you are looking for."

"The Armory is not satisfied that you're being entirely truthful with us. You do have a history of being manipulative. I don't trust vampires. Mystic Falls used to be a great town until the Salvatore's returned," he spat at them, he lifted his hand and pressed some type of device in his hand. All of the heretics started screaming in pain before they collapsed unconscious.

"About time someone teaches you lot a lesson," he commented over their unconscious bodies.

He turned to the other two men and ordered a full search of the house.

"Do you think Lily would work faster if we removed a member of her family?" Lucy asked cocking her head to the side studying Enzo. She kicked lightly at his body, "This one seems rather devoted and he isn't a witch so he's not particularly useful."

"We do not have orders to do that," Matt said in a stern voice.

"I suppose not," Lucy replied in a disappointed tone.

"Surprise!" an upbeat Caroline shouted from the doorway. She had her hands thrown in the air and a large smile on her face; that was until she noticed the unconscious bodies on the ground. "Oh my god, Matt what happened?" she said running to Oscar to check to see if he was alive.

"Caroline," Matt said in a surprised tone.

"Stefan, where is Stefan?" she asked her eyes going from body to body looking for her boyfriend.

"Yes, where is Mr. Salvatore?" Lucy said looking around the room. "I noticed he is suspiciously absent."

"He's in the forest. You know that he prefers to feed off of animals than humans," Matt said to her.

"I know that when The Armory calls a rollcall everyone must be accounted for," Lucy said raising her hand and shooting Caroline with a dart. The blonde vampire slumped to the ground.

Damon saw Bonnie run forward but he quickly grabbed her, placing his hand over her mouth. "We can't give ourselves away," he whispered.

Lucy narrowed their eyes in their direction. She must have sensed them.

The two other men returned with all of the humans that had been compelled and announced that the house was ordered them to pile them into the back of the truck.

Lucy started to walk slowly around the room taking in all the details, "I think they are hiding something. I'm going to do my own scan of the house."

"Do what you want," Matt said with not a care in the world, "Just don't kill any of them. I'm taking Caroline back to base," the blonde human said.

"Donovan, remember she's a vampire and not your friend. She has to be tagged like the rest of them," the witch lectured him.

He gave her an angry nod before picking Caroline up and exiting through the open front door. Lucy closed her eyes and started muttering spells. Bonnie grabbed his hand and pulled him out the front door behind Matt in time to see him place Caroline in the tray with the rest of the compelled humans.

"We can't rescue her now," Damon hissed.

"We can while we're invisible. I don't know what Lucy is doing and if it will reveal us but no one's looking now. Use your vamp speed, grab her and we'll hide in the forest," Bonnie said pinching his side harshly.

Damon rolled his eyes. This witch was always getting him in trouble. He timed his run for when the men were busy opening the doors to the truck and wouldn't notice a body being lifted out of the back. The compelled humans were just sitting silently staring blankly into space. Thankfully they wouldn't react and give him away. He managed to get Caroline out without making a sound. He met Bonnie in the forest about 200 ft away from the house.

"Your friend ways a ton," Damon complained when he dropped her on the ground in front of Bonnie.

"Damon!" Bonnie cried bending down to see if Caroline was injured.

Damon ignored her, instead choosing to whistle while he looked around the empty forest.

"Any idea where Alaric ran off too?" he asked her curiously.

"You don't think they have him?" Bonnie looked up at him fearfully.

Damon scoffed at the idea, "If they had him, they wouldn't have been looking for proof, they would have had proof. No I think someone in my mother's little family isn't being very loyal and tipped off The Armory to our presence," he said looking back in the direction of the house.

"Do you think it was Stefan?" Bonnie asked hesitantly.

"No, Stefan is many things but he wouldn't have sold us out," Damon said. "It's not a very heroic thing to do."

"What do we do now?" Bonnie asked.

"Most of the houses are still empty. We pick one and hide until night fall. They'll be looking for Caroline and the first place they are going to look for her is at the Salvatore boarding house."

"And Alaric?" she asked.

"You're the witch not me! Use a locator spell to find him," Damon responded bending down to hoist Caroline back onto his shoulders. "Tell your friend to go on a diet," he teased.

Bonnie slapped him on his bicep, "You know Caroline weighs less than me and you have no problem carrying me!"

"That's because you are actually my friend!" Damon responded.

Bonnie put her hand against her heart, "Has the cold Damon Salvatore finally admitted that I'm his friend?" she teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must be hearing some strange spirit talking to you," he said shaking his head and chuckling while he walked in the opposite direction to the Salvatore Boarding House.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've watched two episodes into the new season and here's my rant about what I've seen so far:
> 
> I absolutely hate what they've done with Bonnie and Enzo. In the first place I always thought their relationship reminded me of Stockholm Syndrome since Bonnie was stuck in that cabin with only Enzo to keep her company. Now in episode two Bonnie is talking about dying because Enzo isn't there with her anymore! What happened to the strong Bonnie? They've turned her into a character dependent on her boyfriend. Bonnie survived so much. Which leads me to wonder what the hell does Bonnie do all day? At least Caroline has a job. How the hell is Bonnie living?
> 
> Also if Enzo is so important to her then when she's writing to Elena she should be writing Enzo and Damon, not the other way around.


	4. The Inside Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Vampire Diaries.

The first thing Alaric became aware of was the pounding in his head. He kept his eyes closed and used his other senses to examine his surroundings. He didn't hear any footsteps, voices or notable sounds so he could either be alone or his captors were quietly waiting for him to wake up. His nose picked up a soft flowery scent similar to a perfume. His skin told him he was lying on a hard floor but it wasn't cold. He was definitely indoors. He decided to slowly open his eyes. He found himself looking up at a white ceiling with fancy molding on the sides. He followed the pattern to large window that looked out onto well maintained grounds. He was in Tyler Lockwood's house. If memory served him correctly Tyler had allowed the werewolves to use it as their base of operations during their dispute with the heretics.

Considering that it was Mave that lured him out of the car, it made sense that they would take him here. What could they possibly want with him though? He was a mere human, a very skilled human but still a human. The light from the window irritated him so he turned his gaze inwards. That was where he spotted Mave calmly seated on the white sofa staring at him.

"How's the head?" she asked. She almost sounded like she was concerned.

"Where is Stefan?" Alaric asked instead.

"So you remember what happened," she observed. "He wasn't supposed to knock you out but apparently he had some grudge over you telling Caroline that if she was smart, she would leave him and get out of that house. Personally I think that's excellent advice but Stefan doesn't seem to agree," Mave mused.

Alaric slowly sat up. "He should have been man enough to talk to me about it instead of sneaking up and punching me," Alaric complained lifting his hand to the spot where Stefan hit him. As expected it was tender.

"He's a vampire. They are never honourable," Mave countered seriously.

"I think you'll find Elijah Mikaelson might disagree with you on that point," Alaric stated. The pounding in his head was not going away. "You got some aspirin?" he asked.

"We got vampire blood, no aspirin," she told him.

"That will have to do," Alaric said.

Mave raised her eyebrows, "You're not afraid to die with it in your system and become a vampire?" she asked.

"I was a vampire once, an original vampire in fact," he admitted. Mave's eyebrows rose in surprise, "But that is a long story," Alaric said. "Just get me the blood. I have this distinct feeling you want to talk about something and I don't think I can focus on it if this pounding in my head continues."

She nodded. She whistled and a man with a double barrel shot gun walked into the room with a vile of blood. He handed it to him.

"Just to be clear this isn't Stefan's blood is it?" Alaric asked.

"No," Mave answered much to his relief.

Alaric made a face as he caught whiff of the metallic scent. He hated the smell of blood. He held his breath and swallowed the contents of the vile. This wasn't the first time he's used vampire blood to heal an injury. Damon's blood has come in quite useful over the last three years.

"You're not going to ask me how we have vampire blood?" Mave asked curiously.

"Don't care," Alaric responded. "Back to my original question, where is Stefan?"

"We received word that the Armory raided the Salvatore Boarding House an hour ago. He rushed back to the house to find out what happened," the werewolf revealed to him.

"Damon, Bonnie!" Alaric said trying to get up but his head started spinning. The blood hadn't quite cured the problem yet.

"We don't know what has happened yet, but there's nothing you can do at the moment if your friends were found," Mave pointed out.

"You can't expect me to sit here and do nothing," Alaric replied angrily.

"You heard the vampire's perspective last night, I thought you might be interested in the werewolf's point of view," she told him.

He eyed her warily. He suspected that she was playing a very dangerous game with him.

"You don't trust me," she commented.

"You expect me to trust you?" he asked in disbelief.

"I suppose Stefan ruined whatever trust I was trying to build. That's why you should never do business with vampires. They're very prone to throwing temper tantrums," Mave stated with disgust.

"What is the point of this conversation?" Alaric asked. He just wanted his head to stop spinning so he could get out of there.

"The point Mr. Saltzman, is to tell you what Lily has really been up to," Mave elaborated. The entire time she hadn't moved from her place on the sofa looking down on him.

"I can't imagine that Stefan is ok with that?" Alaric commented.

"Stefan wants to keep the peace. He also wants to get Elena back and he doesn't like Lily's plan to do that," Mave revealed.

"What do you mean get Elena back, doesn't Lily have her?" Alaric asked curiously. Warning bells were ringing in his head.

"No, The Armory took her coffin to use her as an anchor for the magical spell to unseal whatever it is we are helping them dig up in the cave system below Mystic Falls," she explained to him.

Alaric laughed bitterly, "Why am I not surprised that Lily Salvatore is two timing us. Could drawing from the spell that keeps Elena asleep kill her or wake her?"

"We have no idea but we think the Armory needs Bonnie as well to do it. Valerie suspects that's the real reason Lily called for Damon. Where Damon goes, you and Bonnie follow like good little puppies," Mave mocked.

Alaric ignored her mocking tone. He needed to focus on what was important at the moment and that was Bonnie's safety. "I have to get back to the boarding house." He tentatively stood and when the room didn't spin, he took that as a good sign.

"You haven't heard our offer yet,"Mave pointed out.

"Let me guess help you get the collars off and get rid of The Armory and the vampires and you'll help us with Elena's coffin. That about it?" Alaric said in a disinterested voice.

Mave deflated.

"Yeah you supernatural beings are all the same," Alaric said walking over the door to leave.

**S-2**

"Mrs. Kruger's house?" Bonnie asked as Damon opened the front door to Caroline's next door neighbour's house.

"Because Bon Bon, it's the last place in Mystic Falls that Matty Boy would look for us," he told her. He signaled for her to enter first and invite him and Caroline in.

"You may come in. How do you know about Mrs. Kruger?" Bonnie asked surprised. She, Caroline and Elena were scared of Mrs. Kruger.

Damon entered the house and ignored all of the stuffed animal heads that were mounted on the wall for all to see. He headed straight to the living area and unceremoniously dumped Caroline on the couch before turning to Bonnie to explain.

"Before I was the man I am today," he started and Bonnie arched an eyebrow at him.

"Hey, I've changed," Damon protested. She gave him a look that clearly said that is up for debate while at the same time telling him to just go on with the story. Damon sighed. "In a nutshell Elena once told me, just after she met me that is, I was as evil as Mrs. Kruger. Naturally that statement peeked my interest and I compelled the woman to tell me all about herself and little Elena Gilbert. Of course she couldn't talk about Elena without mentioning Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennett. The three miserable musketeers was what she called you. Always trying to prove that she was doing something wrong. She said you were afraid to set foot in this house."

"Can you blame us?" Bonnie asked checking Caroline over. "This place is filled with animal heads."

"Her husband was an avid hunter that like to keep the heads of his kills," Damon explained. He wasn't bothered for one second by what was around him.

"I still think she wasn't all that straight. We once thought we saw her drag a body into the basement one night. We were having a sleepover in Caroline's house and her bedroom window looks straight across here. We told Caroline's mom and she went over but there was no body. It was Halloween so it was brushed off as our overactive imaginations," Bonnie told him her eyes glazed over as she remembered her childhood days with her best friends.

"It wasn't. There's a torture chamber in the basement but to each their own," Damon said casually.

Bonnie's eyes widened, "Damon!"

"What?" Damon said. "It's not like I could do anything about it. When I met her she was in a wheelchair. She had to give up that little habit of hers especially when her husband died. He used to hold down their victims," Damon said nonchalantly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket watch.

Bonnie was horrified, "That is very disturbing."

"Here," he said handing the watch to Bonnie. Damon always carried Alaric's pocket watch with him as well as a ring Bonnie had in her family for generations. The reason was that if one of them went missing, he could have a locator spell done easily without having to look for something that belonged to them. Bonnie set up on the coffee table opposite Caroline with a map of Mystic Falls. She performed the necessary spell while Damon looked at the head of a black bear on the wall. "You know I once had a run in with a bear during my time as a soldier."

"Let me guess you shot it," Bonnie said in an acerbic tone.

"No, I ran away screaming. My solider self wasn't exactly brave," Damon admitted.

"How did the bear not chase after you? It could have saved us years of trouble," Bonnie quipped lightly.

"Nice one Bon Bon. My Captain killed it and I was on sanitation duty for a month!" Damon revealed. "Worse month of my life and that's counting that first month after Stefan turned me."

"He's at Lockwood Manor," Bonnie declared once the spell had revealed Matt's location. Once upon a time, that spell would have taken all of her concentration but now she could probably do brain surgery while she casted that spell.

"What do you mean he's at Lockwood Manor?" Damon asked confused. "That's werewolf territory. I thought The Armory had him."

"Look," Bonnie said pointing at the map, "It's clearly Lockwood Manor. Let's just go and get him quickly before Caroline wakes up. We can figure out why he's there afterwards."

"A witch of action!" Damon declared dramatically, "I like that," he emphasized wiggling his eyebrows for added effect.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and packed up her stuff. She threw Alaric's pocket watch at him, and he caught it effortlessly. She walked to the corridor that led to the back door, "You coming or not?"

"Yes but first, why don't you use one of those magic cloaking spells on Caroline. The Armory has their own coven of witches at their disposal that can use their own locator spell to find Caroline. You need to choose a spell powerful enough that the Heretics can't break through it," Damon instructed.

"I know what I'm doing Damon. Magic is my field of expertise. I'll leave the maiming and murdering to you, you leave the magic to me," Bonnie advised him as she focused on hiding Caroline in the house.

"Someone's a bit touchy today," Damon jibed. While Bonnie was working on the spell, Damon looked through the open window into the living room of Caroline's house. If they were looking for Caroline they might start there. He didn't want them to accidentally look over here and see Caroline asleep on the couch so he pulled the curtains closed. He didn't know what they used on her but he estimated they had at least two hours before the blonde vampire would wake up. That should be more than enough time to get Alaric and return to the house.

"Done," Bonnie called out after a minute or so. "I'm leaving!"

"Right behind you," Damon said giving the area a quick onceover before following behind his favourite witch.

**S-3**

It was only when Matt arrived at the recovery clinic, to deliver the humans that the Heretics fed on to the doctors and nurses there, did he realise that Caroline was no longer in the van.

"She's not here," Matt said dumbfounded before he turned to Lucy, "Did you hit her with the correct dosage?"

"Of course I hit her with the correct dosage. I'm not some amateur!" Lucy retorted. "She should be unconscious for eight hours."

"Then how the hell did Caroline get out of the van?" Matt asked pointing into the back of the van that was clearly Caroline free.

"I'll call it in. You unload them," Lucy said nodding her head towards the barely alive people in the back of the van.

Matt went for the lightest one first, a small woman that looked like she weighed 105. He could get her into the clinic first and then have the orderly help him with the rest. The Armory set up this medical clinic in Mystic Falls specifically for the recovery of the humans that the heretics fed on. They needed the heretics to work for them and in order to ensure that they performed at their best they needed to keep them well fed, which meant a steady stream of blood donors. Part of Matt's job was to ensure that the supply was steady. He warned the heretics that should one human die, he would kill all of them.

The people that worked at the clinic were all employed by The Armory. They were familiar with vampires and all had experience with helping people recover from vampire attacks before they came to the town. The clinic was divided into three sections. The first section was for the new arrivals. The second section was for those that needed a longer than usual time to recover. One of the Heretics, Matt had yet to figure out which one, had a sadistic streak and tended to break a few bones while he/she fed. There was nothing Matt could do about it. The last section was for those that were ready to be returned to their homes. The heretics had already compelled them to forget everything the moment they set foot in their houses again. Usually Matt would collect the set that was ready to return home but Lucy interrupted him.

"New order," she said, "The boss wants us to find Caroline. Needs her from some new project. When we find her we are not to tag her," Lucy instructed.

"What new project?" Matt asked with a crinkle in his forehead.

Lucy ignored him. "I need something that belongs to Caroline so that I can find her."

"Her house is closer than the boarding house. I'm sure she had a teddy bear in her room we could use."

Ten minutes later, Matt found himself in Caroline's bedroom. He had been here maybe once or twice before, always with Elena. There was a bear on the bed and he picked it up and took it back downstairs for Lucy. He had seen Lucy perform this spell a few times when they were looking for someone that had evaded The Armory.

"I can't find her. She's cloaked," Lucy said after a few minutes of trying to locate the blonde vampire.

"How is that possible?" Matt asked. He had never seen her fail.

"I think your instincts are right. Bonnie is here. She could hide her from me," Lucy revealed.

Matt sighed. "If they are here then where the hell are they?" he asked frustrated. He glanced out the living room window and noticed the curtains closed next door. He was about to turn back to Lucy when he remembered that they had opened all of the curtains in the houses so that they could see in when they were patrolling.

"Wait here," Matt said grabbing his gun from its holster and heading out the back door.

"What's happening?" Lucy asked concerned as she followed right behind him out the back door of Caroline's house.

"I told you to wait," Matt said in an angry hushed tone.

"I'm not a dog," she responded with sass.

He walked up the steps to the back door of Mrs. Kruger's house. The Armory had ensured that all of the doors were unlocked so that their agents could search the houses easily. He remembered when Elena, Caroline and Bonnie were playing Detective, trying to prove that the woman was up to no good. They set up a surveillance post in Caroline's room to try and catch her doing something wrong but they never did. Matt had once suggested that they go over to the house but that suggestion was shot down very fast.

The back door opened into the kitchen. The dust on the table told him no one had been there in a while. The screen door soon slammed shut as Lucy also entered the kitchen.

"Thanks for letting the door bang shut behind you. Now whoever is in this house knows we are here too," Matt told her angrily.

"What happened scared?" Lucy retorted walking straight passed him and into a corridor that Matta assumed led to the rest of the house.

He walked to the corridor and his lips curled in disgust at the site of a beautiful moose head mounted on one side. The antlers were huge. He was disgusted that someone would want to kill such a majestic creature.

"Hey, I found sleeping beauty," Lucy's voice floated down the corridor to him. "I told you I shot her with the correct dosage," Lucy boasted.

Matt walked down the corridor to join her. He glanced down at Caroline to see she was still sleeping peacefully. "We should check the rest of the house," Matt said.

"No one is here. Let's take her back to the Armory," Lucy instructed.

Matt ignored her and searched the rest of the house. When he turned up empty handed he had to endure the smug look on Lucy's face the entire drive to The Armory. After delivering her, they were ordered to head down to the caves and check on the progress at the new excavation site. They arrived at the barber shop in town and used the entrance that The Armory had created in the base of the shop to access the complicated cave system below the town.

They walked for about half a mile before they came to the latest site. There were several werewolves with pick axes digging into the ground. Matt had no idea what they were looking for and quite frankly he didn't care as long as The Armory held up their end of the deal. When they left town they were supposed to be taking all of the supernatural creatures with them.

He desperately wanted his town to return to what it was, to get rid of the sickness that was plaguing it. The only humans left were him and the rest of The Armory's muscle. He was in contact with a lot of former mystic falls residents and they would move back once the 'gas leak' warning was lifted. Most of the town was in perfect condition so it would be easy for everyone to just step back into their old lives. Matt was also investigating the possibility of protecting the town with some sort of magical barrier that would prevent supernatural beings from entering it. He hoped to make the town the ultimate safe haven for humans.

**S-4**

Enzo checked over his shoulder one last time before he entered the doors to the Armory. His body still hurt from that shock they gave him. Dying and coming back to life wasn't a walk in the park. It hurt like hell. The guards at the entrance paid him no mind. They were already familiar with his visits to their base. The building was similar to a large warehouse. There were many ancient artifacts in cased in showcases all throughout the main floor. There was a mezzanine at one end that held many scrolls and tomes. Below the mezzanine was a security access door that lead to where the real fun happened. Enzo had been granted access.

He placed his palm on the security scanner by the door and the red light turned green. He opened the heavy metal door and entered the cold sterile area of their labs and holding cells. Whereas outside looked old and dusty, in there was modern and clean. The latest technology adorned the walls in the form of a state-of-the-art security system. He found the person he was looking for in an observation room. A two way mirror separated this room from a holding cell where he saw Caroline Forbes unconscious on a bed, an IV in her arm. He hadn't been aware that she was here. The last he heard she was gallivanting across the country with Hayley.

"What is it that you want?" the woman he was looking for asked him. She was dressed in her usual black pants suit. No one could mistake the air of power that surrounded her.

"That was some show you put on," he said. "What do you need Caroline for?" he asked inclining his head towards the sleeping blonde on the other side of the glass.

"Another project, nothing for you to be concerned about," she told him looking back into the room that Caroline was held in.

"I see," he responded but he really didn't. The Armory was very vague about what it was they really did. As far as he knew no one but the woman in front of him knew the full extent of The Armory's purpose. Everyone he interacted with so far, only knew about the cave project, nothing outside of it.

"As promised," she said handing him some documents she pulled from a pocket inside her suit jacket. He wasn't aware the women carried pockets inside their suit jackets. That was highly unusual.

"What is this?" he asked. His deal with them wasn't for paper proof.

"Another piece of your family tree. You wanted to know what we knew. This set are all alive. Pay them a visit, you'll see they all carry the same birthmark as you do," she informed him coolly.

"How am I supposed to get to Italy to verify that?" he asked.

"Look for Carlotta, she goes to college not far from here," she informed him. "On to what you promised us, has Bonnie arrived yet?"

Enzo's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Yes she, Damon and Alaric were here," he admitted. "I thought you took them. They were nowhere to be found when we woke up."

The woman in front of him frowned. "We didn't take them. Why did our search of the boarding house not reveal them?"

"I don't know love. I was unconscious at the time. Perhaps if your dogs had thought to leave me awake then I might have been able to let them know where they could find Bonnie. They probably heard the commotion and got out of the house. Your employees weren't exactly subtle when they blew the front door in," he told her.

The woman sighed, "They were supposed to be a bit more discrete. Matt reported seeing Oscar and Beau leave the town and then return an hour later. He correctly concluded they had gone for supplies for human guests which meant Bonnie and Alaric were in town. Why didn't you report their presence as soon as they arrived?" she interrogated.

"Because Lily asked her little group of witches to monitor the house all night. Anybody's departure would have registered. Damon has a history of unpredictable behavior and she was not taking any chances. Today, when we were allowed out of the house, I would have reported their presence to you," he explained.

She eyed him critically but he had nothing to fear. He told her the truth.

"Do they know Elena is here?" she asked changing topic.

"No, Lily told them she has Elena, in order to get Damon to cooperate with her," he explained.

"Do you see the kind of woman you pledged your loyalty too," she pointed out.

Enzo cocked his head to the side and studied her "Not much different from you then."

She smirked, "My sister was right you have a lot of balls to say that to a woman that could end your life with the press of a button."

"My usefulness hasn't run out yet," he pointed out.

"No it hasn't. Go back to the house. Let us know when we can pick up Bonnie Bennett," she ordered.

"Pick up?" he questioned. "Don't you mean capture her so that you can torture her until she's willing to do your bidding?"

"This one is waking up," she said nodding her head in Caroline's direction. "Get out. I don't have any more time for you."

"Guess I'll be on my way then love," Enzo said heading for the door. On his way out he tried to peak into a few rooms to get an idea of what was going on. The occupants of all of the cells had changed over since he was last here. He never asked what happened to them. Given the nature of the organisation he now worked for, it was a fairly good bet that they had been disposed of once their usefulness had worn out. He glanced at the time on his phone, he needed to get back before he roused anyone's suspicions. He was supposed to be searching the forest for Bonnie and Damon.

**S-5**

Caroline slowly awoke. Her vision was a bit cloudy and it took her a minute of two to focus on anything. The while walls and bright florescent lighting implied she in a hospital. There was a machine on her right that looked like it was monitoring her vitals. On her left was one of those metal stands with an IV bag hanging on it. A clear plastic tube ran from the bag to a needle on her arm. Whatever it was, it wasn't vervain because it didn't hurt.

The room wasn't very large. Directly in front of her she could see a mirror. Her hair was an absolute mess. To the right of the mirror was a large metal door with a small windowpane so others could look in. She reached to pull the IV out of her arm but the intercom came on.

"Don't do that or your friends will be killed," a cold voice said.

She was being watched. The mirror was probably a two-way mirror. Her mind flashed back to the scene at the boarding house. All of the vampires were unconscious on the ground.

"They could already be dead," she said her hand still holding on to the clear IV tube.

"They are not. Your phone is next to you. Give your boyfriend a call," the voice instructed.

Caroline looked at the metal tray that was on a cupboard next to the IV. Her phone was on the tray. She picked it up and called Stefan. "Caroline," he answered. His voice was light and carried the usual happy tone whenever she called.

"Oh my God Stefan. I'm being held in a room in some place. They have an IV in my arm. Hello? Stefan? Stefan?" she said pulling the phone away from her ear to see the call had disconnected.

"As you can see your boyfriend is very much alive. How much longer he stays alive is up to you and your behavior. If you're good, we will let you call him again. If not, well, you may never get to speak to him again," the voice instructed.

Caroline reluctantly let go of the IV tube. "For the record," Caroline said crossing her hand in front of her chest, "I don't like this."

"It's not for you to like," the voice pointed out. "A doctor is about to come into your room in a few minutes. You will cooperate with him and you will not hurt him. Do not try to compel him. He is on vervain. We are watching you 24/7. Do not try anything."

A few minutes later, the door to her room clicked open and an elderly man arrived in a white coat. He had on rimless glasses and a medical clipboard in his hand.

"Good evening subject 32," he said.

"Subject 32? My name is Caroline Forbes," she fired back at him.

He pulled out a voice recorder, "Subject 32 is in prime physical shape. Her body appears to be 18."

"I was 17 when I was turned," she snapped at him.

He ignored her. "The physical conducted shows that she in excellent condition."

"Wait what physical," she asked horrified.

Again he ignored her, "but patient history needs to be established." He finally turned to look at her.

"Subject 32, you are required to fill out the following medical history forms. Be as detailed as possible. We need to screen for any genetic diseases," he said handing her a clipboard with a thick document on it. She looked at the pen on the clipboard. She could jam that into the man neck and make a run for it.

"I don't think I need to remind you about Stefan's life," the annoying voice reminded her.

Caroline angrily grabbed for the clipboard. Across the top of the page subject 32 was written and Caroline scratched it out and wrote her name, Caroline Forbes. She was not a number. She flipped through the forms to see what the questions were like. There were over 100 really personal questions about her life.

She looked up at the doctor angrily, "Really, you need to know at what age I first had sex!"

"It is important to establish your sexual history to ensure you are disease free," he stated.

"I'm a vampire. I am disease free," she stated.

"That is a myth. Often diseases remain when one is turned. What is accurate is that once you are a vampire you will not be afflicted by any new human diseases. Let us use your mother for example. I understand she had cancer and you tried to turn her. I'm sure you saw how that turned out. Becoming a vampire only prevents death by healing physical wounds at a faster rate than the body could normally do. It doesn't cure ailments," the doctor admonished.

"Can't you just test for diseases," she stated bitterly.

"If you were human yes but you are not. Your blood work takes on the characteristics of the latest host that you've drained. It makes it very difficult to get an accurate read on you. I found it much easier if subjects just fill out the form," he informed her.

She glared at him. "If our blood work picks up the characteristics of our blood donor then why don't we get their diseases, if they have any?"

"I have studied Vampires for years," the doctor revealed. "I've looked at what makes you nearly immortal, why you don't age, why you can't reproduce and other medical phenomena. You don't pick up any diseases in your donor's blood because it is registered as foreign to you. Your vampire self registers any disease you are turned with as part of you. Anything new is not allowed to remain in your system for long. It's quite remarkable actually," the doctor said getting a far off look in his eyes.

"Fill out the form Ms. Forbes," the voice encouraged.

"Yes and do make sure to answer every question, no matter how trivial it seems dear," the doctor emphasized.

Seeing no choice Caroline reluctantly started with question one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anybody else feel like the ghost of Elena is haunting the series? I swear, she is not around but she's mentioned so many times in each episode. Episode 10 was great though.


	5. Removal of the Device

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Vampire Diaries.
> 
> So since I last updated, TVD finished and Originals aired an entire season. All I can say is, at last that train wreck that TVD became is finally over. Obviously I didn't like the end. I can't see how Damon would have survived being a human. So much of his ego and personality was tied to being a vampire. Anyway onward we go!
> 
> Warning, there is a medical procedure at the end of this chapter. If such things upset you. Please skip.

Alaric made his way through the forest to the back of the Salvatore boarding house. He noticed a few people watching the front of the house but no one was watching the back. He followed the tree line as close to the back door as he could get before crouching low and darting the remaining feet to the door. When he didn't hear any commotion behind him he assumed he was clear and he opened the door quickly to get inside. He let out of sigh of relief but was promptly thrown against the nearby wall by Beau. He was held their by his shoulders.

"Where have you been?" Mary-Louise hissed.

"It was hours ago that the Armory stopped your car," Nora added.

"I had to walk back here. It took time," he said glaring at Beau. "Not all of us have super speed."

"Let him down Beau," Lilly ordered. The matriarch of the psycho family finally appeared and she didn't look pleased at all.

Beau reluctantly let him down.

"Where are Bonnie and Damon?" Alaric asked as he stepped away from Beau.

"I was hoping you would know the answer to that question," Lily responded closely surveying his appearance.

"You lost them?" Alaric asked with an arch of his eyebrows.

"The Armory was here. We were unconscious. We do not know what happened," Lily snapped at him and he could tell that she hated not being in control.

"Was anything broken?" Alaric asked nonchalantly.

Lilly's eyes narrowed, "No."

"Then they probably got out. Damon puts up one hell of a fight. They're probably in the woods somewhere waiting till dark to return or they could be looking for me. Actually they are definitely looking for me so they should turn up here soon." He walked away from them towards the kitchen.

"Are you sure the Armory didn't take them?" Lily asked following after him.

"Bonnie I could understand taking. She's a witch. She's useful but Damon?" Alaric scoffed. "He is more trouble than he's worth."

"Such warm friendly feelings for my son," Lily said sarcastically.

"I'm a realist," Alaric said with a shrug. "Damon is, who he is."

Stefan, Malcolm and Oscar were in the middle of a discussion in the kitchen that fell silent as soon as they saw him. What a way to say they trust him.

"We have a problem," Malcolm declared. From the look on his face you would think the world was ending. Alaric wasn't fazed. He'd faced world ending situations before.

"Yeah a big problem," Oscar added with hand gestures.

"You know I really hate when people say they have a problem and then pause for dramatic effect. Just spit it out!" Alaric said opening the fridge.

"We think we found it," Malcolm explained.

Seeing nothing of interest in the fridge Alaric closed the door and turned to Malcolm, "And what is it exactly?"

"Not sure. We only exposed a little bit of it before the werewolves covered it back up and pretended like we found nothing."

Lilly and Beau looked gravely concerned, Mary-Louise and Nora both looked equally horrified. Vampires were the best drama queens.

"I'm assuming the guards didn't notice," Alaric stated in a bored tone.

"No, not yet but it's a matter of time," Malcolm said earnestly.

"We need to get these things off of us today. Stefan as soon as Damon gets back, take Malcolm and go with the hospital outside Mystic Falls," Lily ordered.

Alaric's stomach grumbled, "I'm 's the food? We brought today?"

"Car," Oscar answered.

"Seriously? You accuse me of being gone for hours yet for hours none of you unpacked the car?" Alaric asked disgusted.

"Oscar go and get it. I don't want anyone seeing Alaric here," Lily told the resident stoner.

Oscar growled, "You do realise that the Armory knows they are here. They were looking for them."

"Did they find them?" Lilly asked, "Then they do not know for sure that they are here and I do not want to give them confirmation."

Oscar disappeared and returned with food. He set about making himself a nice sandwich while Lily gathered Beau, Stefan, and Malcolm to continue her plotting. Mary-Louise and Nora settled around the breakfast table, one painting her nails and the other playing on her phone. He ignored them and concentrated on his sandwich. He needed to figure out how to tell Damon what was going on without 1) Damon going homicidal on everyone and 2) The heretics hearing because it didn't' seem like they were ever going to leave the three of them along again.

He was halfway through his sandwich when Stefan and Valerie entered the kitchen. Mary-Louise and Nora turned up their noses at them and then left. They couldn't be any more obvious about the fact that they didn't trust him alone.

"Have you heard from Caroline today?" Stefan asked worriedly.

"No," Alaric replied. "I'm not exactly at the top of her friend list."

Stefan's eyebrow fractionally closed together. It was a sign that something was wrong.

Alaric sighed heavily and knew he was probably going to regret what he was about to ask, "What's wrong?"

"She called me earlier but the call dropped as soon as I answered," he explained.

Valerie reached for his hand and squeezed it in comfort.

"Maybe she was in an area with poor cell coverage," Alaric suggested glancing down to see Valerie was still holding Stefan's hand and Stefan had yet to pull away.

"Maybe but she would move and then call me again. It's been two hours."

"Give her more time. If she doesn't answer try calling Hayley. It's not like you know where she is so you can run in and rescue her if things went wrong," Alaric pointed out.

"If that was supposed to make me feel better, then I have to inform you that you've picked up Damon's brand of comfort," Stefan said wryly.

Valerie snorted and Stefan glared at her.

"What? Alaric had a point. There is nothing you can do about it right now," she said.

"I could ask you to do a locator spell," he suggested.

"You could," she responded teasingly.

Alaric looked between Stefan and Valerie. Both were focused intently on each other. He wondered what Caroline thought of this particular friendship. Alaric was certainly sensing something. He picked up his sandwich and left the kitchen. He wondered how far he would get before he had a new watcher.

* * *

The walk to Lockwood manor had been uneventful. There had been no sight of anyone around and they were able to walk right up to the front door and knock. This was certainly contrary to the story Stefan painted when the werewolves first came to town. He claimed they couldn't get within two miles of the place. As a result, Bonnie was on edge, her eyes constantly scanning the grounds behind them for foes.

There was no answer to the first knock, so Damon knocked again.

"Seems like no one's home," Damon quipped. "You would think Tyler would have the courtesy to answer the door quickly."

Suddenly the door swung open and Mave appeared.

"What do you want Vampire? Your kind is not invited here," she said acidly.

"We're here for Alaric," Bonnie said.

"He's not here." Mave started to close the door shut and Bonnie held it open. Damon may not be able to cross the threshold but she certainly could.

"That's bullshit!" Damon said angrily itching to close his hands around her throat and squeeze the correct answer out of her.

"Look, he was here and he left. He probably went back to the Boarding House,"Mave explained.

"Why was he here in the first place?" Damon demanded pointing a finger at the ground.

"To tell him the truth," the werewolf replied.

"Well since we're here as well," Damon indicating to him and Bonnie with his hand, "Care to enlighten us?"

Mave huffed, "I swear Vampires are always so demanding. It must be a side effect of being turned. If you must know the Armory has Elena not your mother."

"What!" Bonnie exclaimed.

Damon broke out in sadistic laughter, "I'm going to kill her!"

"Great now get off our property," Mave said sternly slamming the door in their faces.

Bonnie's hand encircled Damon's bicep, "Let's go." Under her breath she placed a calming spell on Damon. She didn't need him starting war with the Heretics yet. The priority was locating Elena. After that then she could let him cause as much damage as he wanted.

"I'm going to rip her heart out," Damon said agitated.

"You'll have time for that later," she assured him tugging him in the direction of Mrs. Kruger first. She wanted to get Caroline before they went back to the boarding house.

Damon stopped her when they were about to break through the forest at the back of Mrs. Kruger's house.

"It's under surveillance," he said his hand on her wrist. "They knew we were here."

"But how?" Donnie asked studying the house intently.

"I don't know but we have to go," he said turning around and pulling her with him.

"We have to get Caroline," Bonnie said trying to resist his tug.

"She's probably with The Armory and murdering Lily is more important right now," Damon said tugging her along.

"No!" Bonnie said. "We are going to go back to the boarding house and pretend like we do not know anything else, understand? We play along until we come up with a good plan to rescue both Elena and Caroline."

Damon scowled.

"I said do you understand?" Bonnie asked more firmly.

"Yes," Damon reluctantly agreed.

"It's as Alaric told you. Bonnie always knows best," she boasted falling into step next to him.

"That was one time," Damon protested.

When they arrived at the board house the sun had set and they entered through the back entrance. Enzo was waiting for him with Stefan and Malcolm.

"Where have you been?" Enzo asked first.

"We went for a walk," Damon replied rudely.

Stefan rolled his eyes, "We've been waiting for you. We need to leave for the hospital tonight."

"Why the sudden rush brother?" Damon spat at him.

Stefan was momentarily taken back by the tone and Bonnie stepped in before things got out of hand.

"Damon go. I'll be fine here. I assume Alaric is here?" she asked.

"Upstairs," Enzo said. "I can take you up to him." Bonnie nodded and followed after the old vampire. She stopped at the doorway and turned back to Damon. 'Play nice," she mouthed to him before continuing on her way.

* * *

The emergency room of the hospital was fairly deserted. Damon assumed it was because one of the main catchments of patients for the hospital, Mystic Falls was devoid of human activity. While Stefan went off in search of his X-Ray tech Damon wandered around. He found the blood bank and picked up a quick snack followed by some rather interesting things in the pharmacy. By the time he returned, Malcolm was seated patiently in the waiting area and his brother was chatting up a nurse asking for the X-ray Tech and Damon saw a man with a stethoscope around his neck. Damon grabbed hold of his arm as he passed.

"Are you a doctor?" he asked.

The doctor tried to pull away from him and Damon looked him the eye, "Answer the question," he compelled.

"Yes," the man answered tonelessly.

"Great I have a patient you're going to see now," with a smile Damon turned to the Heretic, "Malcolm, I found a doctor." He waved his hand for Malcolm to follow them to a secluded examination room.

"We should wait for Stefan," Malcolm said glancing over at Stefan.

Damon looked passed Malcolm to the counter where Stefan was engaged in a conversation with a nurse.

"Nah, he can work his angle. We'll work ours. Besides doesn't a Doctor trump a Technician?" Damon quipped.

When Malcolm didn't answer he continued along with the Doctor. He figured Malcolm would be curious about what he was up to and he had to suppress the smirk when the Heretic got up from his seat and followed them down the corridor. This was going to be fun.

"Take off your shirt and show the good doctor your problem," Damon instructed when all three of them were in the room.

Soon the metal device was on display for all to see.

"What the hell is this? How are you still alive? What the hell are you?" the Doctor exclaimed panicking. Damon compelled him to focus on the task at hand and examine the device.

"It looks like the skin healed around it. I have no idea how it's on there. An X-ray should give us more information about the device."

Malcolm looked at Damon, "We're right back to an X-ray," he said smugly.

"Are we really," Damon said jamming the sedative he had stolen earlier into Malcolm's neck. The vampire passed out. "I think we can examine the device itself."

Damon yanked the device from Malcolm's chest, even in the deep sleep the pain of the removal caused a yelp and body spasm. A massive hole in Malcolm's chest right above his heart was left. The doctor stood there with his eyes wide in shock.

"He he sssshhhould be dddead," he stuttered looking at the massive tissue damage to his chest.

Damon looked at Malcolm. His heart was still beating but the wound was not healing. Having been bitten by a werewolf he knew the symptoms first hand. Malcolm's whole body started to shake and Damon watched as his heart started to beat faster. That was quite a concentrated dose. His heart stopped beating and his body went still. He looked closer at the device and saw what looked to be the tip of needles in between chucks on Malcolm's flesh attached at the bottom of the device. He handed the device to the doctor.

"Clean this up," he ordered. Damon was not risking getting cut by any needle that had werewolf venom on it.

By the time the doctor was finished cleaning the device Damon counted seven needles that would have been directly above Malcolm's heart. The way the device was designed, the action of pulling the device out caused the needles to be sent down into the heart and release the venom. That way the venom spread through the body much quicker.

The door opened and Stefan's head appeared. "There you are," he said coming into the room before pausing to look at Malcolm. "Damon! What did you do?"

"I did what I always do brother?" Damon responded.

"Lily is going to be very angry you killed a member of the family," Stefan said.

"Oh but I didn't kill him, at least not directly, the device did it," Damon said pointing at the metal thing on the counter.

"You did that purposely," Stefan accused.

"Of course. You and Lily did lie to me about Elena's coffin," Damon said. "Plus there was that incident the night before with Malcolm so consider this the first part of my revenge."

"Technically it was Lily that lied to you."

"You allowed Lily to manipulate us!" Damon screamed. He sent a tray of surgical equipment across the room in anger and then ordered the doctor to pick it up.

"I didn't. It was my idea for Mave to tell Alaric the truth. I was there. That was why I wasn't at the house when The Armory came," Stefan tried to explain to him.

"Ok brother. We have a way to remove the device but first we need to sedate you," Damon revealed.

"I can take the pain," Stefan responded.

"The removal process requires surgical precision. If you flinch at any point you could set off the device, you need to be unconscious. So I guess the question is do you trust me brother?" Damon said with a wicked smile.

Stefan held out his hand for the injection and Damon jammed it into his arm. Stefan didn't even flinch. Damon watched satisfied as Stefan swayed on his feet. He threw Malcolm off the table onto the ground and put Stefan on the table. Just before Stefan's eyes closed he leaned over, "Oh and The Armory kidnapped Caroline. Guess we have something in common now."

* * *

Matt's alarm clock rang loudly. His hand came down hard on the poor object and it stopped its offensive noise. He opened his eyes to see the bright red numbers mocking him. It was 4:00am in the morning. He hated the five – one shift. He forced himself up. After a shower, he dressed and exited his apartment. The door opposite his opened and a young woman of average height with black hair stepped out.

"You got the early shift too Penny?" he asked crankily as he locked his door.

She yawned, "Yeah." She closed her door but never locked it. He didn't tell her anything about that. They had that argument before and she believed there was no reason to lock the door. He followed her out of the building and onto the street. The air was cold and Penny pulled her coat around her a bit tighter. They needed to walk one block towards his old high school.

The high school was the base of operations for The Armory in Mystic Falls. The security staff was put up in the apartments around the high school. Matt liked to think of it as the human side of town. He longed for the day when all the stores on the main street and the grill reopened. The high school cafeteria provided them with food. Anything else they needed they could go to the surrounding towns.

The Armory appeared three months ago. Matt had been the lone human in Mystic Falls that had the responsibility to keep other humans out of the town. The official cover was a gas leak. He mostly dealt with travelers passing through and college students from the nearby colleges. The college kids believed the town was haunted. Quite a few fraternities had initiation challenges that involved going into Mystic Falls. The beginning of the fall semester was always the busiest time for Matt.

His first encounter with the Armory, he naively tried to get them to leave town. That was when they offered him the deal of cleaning up Mystic Falls if he came to work with them. The thought of getting his town back to what it was, was too good to pass up. He started off as a regular security guard on shifts like the one he had to do in half an hour. He then worked his way up to doing special tasks and was assigned Lucy as a partner. Lucy lived in the witch section, which was really a bunch of cabins on the edge of town that The Armory's coven lived in.

"Hey Matt," Penny said as they walked. "Did you notice anything strange in the cave yesterday?"

"I wasn't assigned to the cave yesterday," he replied. "Why?"

"Well you know how usually there's a lot of banter between the werewolves and the vampires?" she asked.

"You mean the usual, I'll kill you, No I'll kill you, argument?" he responded dryly.

"Yeah that one. It was like that at first but then I noticed that it stopped. They were strangely silent yesterday. It was as if they suddenly agreed to shut up and do their work," Penny explained.

"What part of the cave was this?" Matt asked.

"I'll show you when we go down," Penny explained.

They ate breakfast quickly and entered the cave. The first shift of werewolves and one Heretic, Beau, were using pitch forks to break into the rocks. Penny took him passed them to an area about 100 feet away. He noticed that the werewolves and Beau were watching him with rapt interest.

"It happened around here," Penny said.

Matt nodded. He trusted Penny. Like him she had been in law enforcement. She had good instincts and if she thought something was wrong, then something was wrong. Matt looked around and spotted an area of loose rubble. They were supposed to move away the rocks as they worked. Besides what they were looking for, The Armory made money off of selling the rocks as backfill. No rocks were to be left behind. Matt bent down to pick them up and throw them at the werewolves and perhaps give them a little buzz for not following instructions when the gleam of smooth surface caught this attention. They had found what they were looking for.

* * *

Caroline had no idea how long she had been there. There was no sign of day or night. No food delivery to tell time by and as a result she was really hungry. She knew she drifted off to sleep; dreaming of Stefan rescuing her but it was hard to tell how long she had been asleep for. While the idea of being rescued was a nice hope, she knew Stefan didn't know she was in Mystic Falls. He didn't know she had come back because she wanted to surprise him. How could she expect a rescue if no one knew she had been taken? She, herself, had no idea where she was. She could be in Europe since she had no idea how long she was sedated for either.

The door opened and the Doctor from the before returned with a nurse this time. The nurse was rolling a tray in front of her. The top of the tray carried a range of surgical items and the second tray was full of blood bags. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the blood bags but a jolt of electricity rang through her. She fell on the ground in pain.

"Subject 32, please remain on the bed when we enter," the doctor said. She noticed the cattle prod in his arm for the first time. "Now please return to the bed. You will get your dinner soon."

Caroline was contemplating snapping both of their necks when the intercom switched on and the voice from before reminded her that Stefan would pay if she was defiant. Caroline reluctantly picked herself off the ground and sat on the bed. The nurse started restraining her to the bed.

"What is this for? I did what you asked?" she said pulling against the restraints

"It is necessary for the procedure," the doctor said looking at his chart. "How are you feeling today?"

"Like you care?" she spat at him. She pulled at the hand restraints again and they didn't even budge an inch. She wondered what they were made of. The ones around her feet didn't give way either.

"I do care. My experiments will fail if you're in poor health," he commented.

"Well you can take your experiments and shove them where the sun don't shine," Caroline said angrily.

"I'm afraid examining your rectum is not a part of this experiment. Today we will be checking on the health of your ovaries."

"What do you want with my ovaries?" she asked horrified.

"Many things. The nurse is going to give you an injection so won't feel any pain during the procedure," he said turning to study the tray the nurse had brought in.

"Like I have an option!" Caroline spat.

"You could go without the painkiller but I've found that pain causes flinching which affects my work. I do not want to accidentally cut into your ovary."

The nurse loosened the restraint on her hand enough so that she could turn her on to her side to inject spine. Everything went numb.

"Let's get started," the doctor said pleased,

She watched as he picked up a scalpel and sliced quickly across her abdomen. She gasped in horror.

"Would you like to see?" he asked her with glee.

"No!"

"Oh some subjects are curious. Being a vampire gives you the unique advantage of seeing your internal organs without the threat of dying." He sounded absolutely fascinated with that fact.

"That is not something I've ever been interested in doing," she said looking up at the ceiling.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him pick up a measuring tape. He measured something in her and read the results to the nurse who recorded it on her chart.

"They are quite healthy. The perfect specimen for this experiment." He was excited and Caroline was trying to figure out what type of psycho he was.

He pulled his hands out her, "Give her the blood so she can start to heal. We will start her on the hormone therapy immediately."

He picked up a syringe while the nurse inserted a straw into the blood bag for Caroline to drink from.

"What are you doing with that syringe?" Caroline asked.

"The first step is to jumpstart your reproductive system. While vampires have advanced cellular regeneration it comes at a cost to your endocrine and digestive systems."

"The what system? I only crammed enough biology to pass."

"The first system controls your hormones and the second, the enzymes in your digestive tract. Hormones control growth, temperature regulation and the reproductive system. The enzymes are what digests food. That's why you feed on blood. You need the digested nourishment in other's blood to survive. Vampirism greatly reduces the efficiency with which those systems work."

"So you're experimenting to see if a vampire can reproduce? That's impossible."

"No, I've had a few successful trials. First, I inseminated a female vampire with a normal embryo to see if it was possible for her to carry a child to term. After that was successful, I fertilized the egg of a vampire with the sperm of a normal man."

Caroline's eyes opened up wide. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"To see what the offspring is like? To determine what traits of vampirism could be passed on. If the healing is passed on it could be isolated and applied to the rest of humanity. The application for some of you positive traits are numerous," he explained as if there was nothing wrong with what he was doing.

"Its magic that gives us our abilities not science," Caroline informed him.

"It might be magic now but in a few years it could be science," was his response.

"Since you have your answer already, I don't see how you need me," Caroline said.

"These children haven't been born yet to analyze. I'm moving on to the next phase of my experiments," he said placing the syringe back on the tray.

"Which is what exactly?"

"Fertilizing a female vampire's egg with a male vampire's sperm. I can implant in you or I could give you the option of the old fashioned way to conceive a child."

"Stefan would never agree to that," Caroline replied.

"Who said anything about Stefan Salvatore," he responded.

"No other man is coming near me," Caroline said in a threatening tone.

"Invitro it is then," he said nodding to the nurse who made a note on her chart.

"This is disturbing and very, very, wrong."

"I think I will invite Leslie and Jade to talk to you about the honour you're being given. You might change your mind once you hear their experiences," he said. He looked down at her abdomen, "You're beginning to heal. In a few hours you'll be completely fine." He looked at the nurse. "You can release her in an hour. Make sure she consumes all of those blood bags." He turned his gaze back to Caroline, "I'll see you soon Subject 32." He had the gall to pay her hand sympathetically.

"I hope not," Caroline seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.


End file.
